


Sunrise

by Anankhe



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Character Death, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-03
Updated: 2013-05-03
Packaged: 2017-12-10 07:56:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/783653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anankhe/pseuds/Anankhe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sunrise brings many changes with it, not all of them pleasant. And at the end of the day Jee is left to pick up the pieces.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunrise

**Author's Note:**

> This little fic was requested by the girls at Princebender. The prompt was Jee/Zuko babyfic and I daresay it turned out more angsty than any of them expected *grins* This contains character death and mentions of M/M. Ye have been warned.
> 
> Many thanks to DracoMaleficium for the beta. You're the best :*

It's too soon. She shouldn't have gone into labour yet, he thinks frowning as he returns to the royal bedchamber with Zuko's waterbending friend in tow in the middle of the night, not five minutes after the Fire Lord's panicked voice called from within for help.

The midwives had warned them that childbirth would be difficult. Mai's hips were too slim, her body unprepared for the stress and too worn out after carrying and sustaining her daughter for the past eight months. Her health had been steadily declining as the pregnancy progressed, to the point that even walking had recently become too much of a strain for her, and before long Zuko had requested for the waterbender's continued presence in the palace. But there was not much she could do. Lady Mai was not actually sick or injured. There was nothing for her to heal.

Even knowing that doesn't take the edge off the shock as the Fire Lord is ushered out of his own bedchamber by a serious-looking waterbender and the door is unceremoniously slammed in his face. Not before the girl orders Jee to keep him outside, though, without even looking at him, and he thinks with faint amusement that only lasts a fleeting second that she's probably one of the few people alive who would dare, and get away with, bossing the Fire Lord around.

And that's pretty much the only amusing thing about this whole situation. Katara and the midwives have been in there for hours it seems, though it's hard to tell without the Sun to mark the time as it moves across the sky, and Zuko's pacing is getting on Jee's nerves. He wants to walk up to him and smack some sense into him, shake him, hold him close against his chest, _anything_ to make him calm down, but his nerves are much too frayed and he's afraid he might do more harm than good. 

So he stays right where he's standing, diligently guarding the door and the lives he's been entrusted with right behind it. It's easier to keep a clear mind if he stops thinking about what's going on in there and concentrates on the task assigned to him.

Which is not an easy one when a pained cry comes from the room right behind him, and that seems to be the last straw for Zuko. He stops his pacing – finally – and turns towards Jee with wide eyes and an ashen face.

“Let me in,” he orders, squaring his shoulders and trying to look intimidating. As if. He knows Zuko better than he knows himself, and he won't let himself be ordered around like that by a brat half his age. Not in the state he's in, not even if disobeying him is technically treason.

“You shouldn't go inside, sir,” he states calmly, but he subtly widens his stance, planting himself more firmly between the Fire Lord and the door. Zuko's eyes narrow at him, the left one becoming slightly more than a slit, and Jee has enough time to notice that he manages to pull off intimidating a lot better when he's not trying to, before a louder cry echoes once again in the corridor.

“That's an _order_ , Guard Captain,” he says, his voice hard as steel, and it hurts, more than Jee thought it would, having rank pulled on him after sticking by Zuko's side for so many years. He ignores the sharp stab of pain in his gut. Now is not the time to be getting all emotional about inconsequential stuff like that. Someone needs to keep a cool head here and it's clearly not going to be Zuko.

“Be reasonable, sir. You'll only get in your friend's way.” He's careful to keep his voice level and his tone neutral, but that only seems to further infuriate the boy.

“Let. Me. In,” he hisses, and just like that he's in Jee's personal space, slamming him back against the door and holding one fist alight inches away from his face, and Jee forces himself to keep his face even and tells himself that it's just a bluff - Agni, he hopes it's a bluff, but the kid looks _desperate_ and he's clearly not thinking straight - and he holds his ground even as he can feel his sideburns scorching.

“No.”

A third cry and the agitated voices of the midwives come from within the room, and from the murderous look on Zuko's face Jee is pretty sure he is about to get a scar to match his. He winces then but holds his ground, and the stricken look on Zuko's face hurts more than the prospect of a fireball to the face. The utter helplessness and betrayal looking back at him from the boy's eyes cuts deeply into his chest and twists painfully in the wound like a knife.

Zuko shoves himself away with an angry cry as the flames in his hand extinguish and Jee barely suppresses a sigh of relief. Which doesn't last long as the cries from within the room are turning louder and more frequent - and Spirits, he's never heard Lady Mai cry like that, she's such a strong woman - and each one of them seems to physically hurt Zuko as he resumes his endless pacing.

And then the women's voices inside the room become more urgent, rising in both pitch and volume, and that's when Jee realizes something is definitely wrong and it chills him down to his bones.

No, everything's fine, he tries to reassure himself. There's a master waterbender in that room, a healer. She can probably deal with this better than any fire nation doctor.

Except everything's clearly _not_ fine judging from the sounds coming from behind him, and Zuko knows this too.

“Let me in,” he pleads this time, and he sounds and looks so desperate that Jee is tempted to grant his request. But it's most definitely not a good idea to let him into the room and he feels wretched, but just looks away as the cries keep echoing around them.

“Please,” Zuko tries once again, sounding more scared than Jee's ever heard him and for some reason this is more convincing than being threatened with firebending at point blank. But he stands firm, and this time he forces himself to look the young man in the eye and hold his stare as he answers.

“I'm sorry, sir.”

Zuko just lets out a frustrated cry and actually bares his teeth at Jee in a threatening manner, and the loathing stare Jee receives promises he'll regret this if either Lady Mai or the baby don't make it out in perfect health. But Jee can see his hands shaking and the way his legs can barely support his own weight and he knows he doesn't mean any of it, it's just the fear taking over him.

Jee feels his heart breaking as he watches his young lover crumble miserably to the ground once the cries become too much for him, the strangled sob that escapes from his throat chilling the flame inside him, and he aches to reach out, to comfort him, but he's not sure the gesture would be welcome.

Yet another pain-filled cry comes from behind the closed doors and Zuko flinches visibly. He rakes trembling fingers through his long hair and pulls at it, as if tearing it all away could somehow ease his pain. That's when Jee decides that the brat will take his comfort whether he wants it or not, because he can't just stand there doing nothing and watch him being reduced to a pitiful mess. He closes the distance between them in three long strides and falls down to his knees beside him.

Zuko tenses up as Jee grabs hold of his hands and gently but firmly pries his fingers from his scalp. He resists, snarls at Jee like a wounded beast as he tries to free his wrists from Jee's hold, but Jee is patient and unrelenting and Zuko is tired and finally the boy gives up and collapses against him as the last of his strength abandons him. And it shouldn't hurt Jee so much, it shouldn't frighten him so much, except it does, because he's _never_ seen the boy like this, accepting defeat so easily, and his fire feels so weak and tiny and all Jee can do is hold him close to keep him warm and provide what little comfort he can.

It feels a small eternity - though it's probably just a couple of hours, the dark sky just beginning to become tinged by the pink hues of pre-dawn as the Sun begins tirelessly its trail across the sky once more - before the faint cry of a newborn reaches their ears, weak and pitiful, and Jee would've missed it if not for the sudden and unexpected silence of the women inside the room.

Zuko tenses up in Jee's arms and his breath catches; his eyes open and stare unseeingly at the closed door. It's another small eternity - and Jee needs to remind him to keep on breathing because seriously, if the boy passes out now from lack of oxygen after waiting the whole night out here he might be tempted to inflict some serious bodily harm on him - before the door finally opens and a weary-faced Katara appears in the doorway.

Zuko is the first to speak.

“Are they okay?”

Jee feels the floor drop from beneath him, and he winces as Zuko's nails dig into his forearms, though not from the physical pain of it. Katara's expression is all the answer they need and the painful realization crashes over Jee like a bucket of icy cold water.

She looks at Zuko and holds his gaze with visible difficulty as she simply states:

“She wants to see you.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

  


He keeps his place by the door, refusing to leave his post even when the waterbender suggests he go get some sleep, and reality doesn't sink in for a while yet - not when the midwives leave grim-faced and refusing to meet his eyes, not when he can hear Zuko's gut-wrenching sobs from beyond the door until they eventually subside what seems like ages later, not even when the Fire Sages arrive and leave the room shortly after with a very human-shaped bundle covered in white sheets - until Zuko calls for him and he's allowed inside the room.

He's sitting by the window, soaking in the mid-morning sunshine and looking utterly lost as he cradles a tiny bundle to his chest. There's something so very _wrong_ with this picture, and that's when it finally hits Jee with the strength of a sledgehammer, forcing the air out of his lungs as he feels his heart breaking all over again.

A widower at twenty-two. _Agni_.

He hesitates for a moment before stepping fully into the room and closing the door behind him, and Zuko finally looks up as he notices his presence, a slightly surprised expression on his face.

“You're here. Good,” is all he says and his voice is raspy as he looks down at the bundle in his arms. Jee wants to make it clear that he never left, that he's been waiting right here for the last couple of hours just in case he's needed, just for a chance to make sure Zuko is alright with his own eyes, but he looks down at the figure in Zuko's arms, eerily silent and still, and it doesn't seem important anymore.

Jee opens his mouth, and he's almost afraid to ask. Surely Zuko wouldn't be holding the baby if it was... right?

“Is...” He stops himself, realizing he doesn't even know if it's a boy or a girl, but Zuko seems to understand nonetheless.

“She,” he states, and an almost imperceptible smile appears on his face as he looks with as much tenderness as sadness at the tiny baby in his arms. “My daughter. Come closer, I want you to meet her.”

His _daughter_. The word sounds so strange, but Jee sighs in relief on the inside and he steps closer to the pair by the window. The baby is fine, thank Agni.

He looks at her and the first thing that comes to mind is she's tiny, followed closely by a much more surprising thought as he feels a tiny flutter coming from inside her. _Firebender_. Both of which actually explain Zuko's perch by the window. She'd been born prematurely, and she probably is every inch as fragile as she looks, so she'll need the Sun to keep her alive.

“She's beautiful, sir,” he says instead of what he is actually thinking, but being completely honest nonetheless. “Have you decided on a name for her yet?”

“Not really,” Zuko says, but he doesn't seem overly concerned by it. That's okay. It's not really a pressing matter yet. “You used to help taking care of your nieces and nephews. Before you joined the navy.” It is a statement, not a question. “You know how to take care of a baby,” he says finally.

Oh. Jee can see where this is going and it makes him slightly uncomfortable, but at the same time he's grateful for being given something to do. He can do this. He can help.

“It's been a long time, sir,” he says anyway, letting his insecurity get the better of him. Zuko ignores him.

“You will teach me,” he says with finality. It's not quite an order, but Jee can't bring himself to refuse him, not when he can see how much it's taking out of Zuko to keep himself together. “I'm going to need your help. I can't do this alone.” His voice is small as he admits this, and he looks so young - he _is_ so young, Spirits, too young to be going through this - as he looks uncertainly up at Jee. His eyes are rimmed with red but completely dry now, and the only thing holding him together, Jee realizes, is the small life he's holding in his arms.

So Jee makes up his mind. Teaching is something he knows, it's something he's good at. And maybe they can both take comfort in the familiarity of it. He runs one hand through Zuko's hair and leans in to press a kiss to the boy's forehead, before looking down at the baby girl sleeping peacefully on her father's arms.

And he starts explaining in detail all he can remember about taking care of a newborn as Zuko hangs on to his every word, focused for now on the most important matter at hand. And for a while Jee can fool himself into believing that everything will be alright.  



End file.
